Deals: Week of August 13, 2012

By Rachel Deahl
|

Aug 13, 2012

Bloomsbury Nabs Portrait of Medical Mystery Kathy Belden at Bloomsbury preempted world English rights to Maud Casey’s The Man Who Walked Away. Casey lives in Washington, D.C., and teaches English and creative writing at the University of Maryland; excerpts of the novel received the Calvino Prize (a writing award given by the University of Louisville). The novel, set in the 1800s in Bordeaux, France, was inspired by the relationship between Albert Dadas and his physician: Dadas was diagnosed with an ailment known as “walking fugue,” which caused him, as the publisher put it, to go on "trance-like wanderings." Casey’s previous books include The Shape of Things to Come and Genealogy. Alice Tasman at the Jean Naggar Literary Agency represented her.

Boudreaux Buys Detroit Rocker’s Horror Debut Lee Boudreaux, at HarperCollins’s Ecco imprint, bought North American rights at auction, in a six-figure deal, to Josh Malerman’s debut novel, Bird Box. Kristin Nelson, at Nelson Literary Agency, brokered the deal for Malerman, who fronts the rock band the High Strung (which began in Brooklyn’s Williamsburg section and is now based in Detroit). In the novel, which Ecco is calling a "chilling literary" work, a blindfolded threesome—a woman and two children—make their way down a river in a seemingly post-apocalyptic setting. The book is set for 2014, and foreign rights to the book have already sold in the U.K. and Brazil, with an offer in from Germany and an auction there set for later this month.

Bard ‘Picnics’ for Little, Brown Elizabeth Elizabeth Bard, author of 2010’s New York Times bestseller Lunch in Paris, sold a new memoir to her publisher, Little, Brown, this one set elsewhere in France. Judy Clain bought North American rights to Picnic in Provence from agent Wendy Sherman at Wendy Sherman Associates Literary Management. Like Bard’s previous book, this one works recipes into the author’s personal story about buying a home in the south of France and starting a family. Sherman said the book is “a new kind of modern fairytale, about everything that happens after the happily-ever-after.”

Norton Looks at the New Yorker’s ‘Golden Age’ Agent Glen Hartley, at Writers’ Representatives, sold Thomas Vinciguerra’s Cast of Characters: Wolcott Gibbs, E.B. White, James Thurber and the Golden Age of The New Yorker to John Glusman at Norton. Glusman took world rights to the book, which focuses on the period between the 1930s and the 1950s. Glusman described it as “a group biography and portrait of America as reflected in the nation’s most celebrated literary magazine.” Vinciguerra is deputy editor at the Week magazine; Cast is scheduled for spring 2015.

Rohm Talks Fertility for Da Capo Actress Elisabeth Rohm (best known for her stint as ADA Serena Southerlyn on Law & Order), who also blogs for People.com, sold a book called The Object of My Conception to Renee Sedliar at Da Capo. Zach Schisgal at the Zach Schisgal Agency represented Rohm. Da Capo said the book, which will offer Rohm's personal experiences trying to get pregnant via in vitro fertilization, "will do for IVF what Brooke Shields’s Down Came the Rain did for postpartum depression." Sedliar took world rights in the deal, and the book is set for spring 2013.

Briefs A.M. Tuomala (who wrote Ereko, which was named one of PW’s Best Books of 2011) sold a book called Drakon to Kate Sullivan at Candlemark & Gleam. Tuomala did not use an agent in the deal, which was for world English rights. The novel is set in 1880 during the reign of Catherine the Great when, Sullivan explained, "the Ottoman Empire bought the allegiance of the dragons."

A version of this article appeared in the 08/13/2012 issue of Publishers Weekly under the headline: Deals: Week of August 13, 2012

PW has integrated its print and digital subscriptions, offering exciting new benefits to subscribers, who are now entitled to both the print edition and the digital editions of PW (online or via our app). For instructions on how to set up your accout for digital access, click here. For more information, click here.

The part of the site you are trying to access is now available to subscribers only. Subscribers: to set up your digital subscription with the new system (if you have not done so already), click here. To subscribe, click here.

Thank you for visiting Publishers Weekly. There are 3 possible reasons you were unable to login and get access our premium online pages.

You are NOT a current subscriber to Publishers Weekly magazine. To get immediate access to all of our Premium Digital Content try a monthly subscription for as little as $18.95 per month. You may cancel at any time with no questions asked. Click here for details about Publishers Weekly’s monthly subscription plans.

You are a subscriber but you have not yet set up your account for premium online access.Add your preferred email address and password to your account.

You forgot your password and you need to retrieve it. Click here to access the password we have on file for you.